An act to add Sections 120161, 120162, and 120163 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to communicable diseases.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1787, as amended, Salas.
Reporting: Valley Fever.

Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to establish a list of reportable communicable and noncommunicable diseases and conditions and specify the timeliness requirements related to the reporting of each disease and condition. Existing law also supports research into the development of a vaccine to protect against coccidioidomycosis, also known as Valley Fever.

This bill would require the department to establish an annual deadline of March 31, commencing March 31, 2019, for a local health officer to report to the department all cases of coccidioidomycosis reported to the local health officer for the previous calendar year. The bill would require any cases not reported by the deadline to be included in the next year’s data collection and attributed
department, when it receives a report of a case of coccidioidomycosis after the department’s reporting deadline for a specified year, to include the case in its data collection for the next year and to the year of diagnosis in future data reporting. This bill would require the department to collect data on coccidioidomycosis cases by April 15 of each year, as specified. The bill would require the department, if it collects data on coccidioidomycosis cases and removes discrepant data from its internal data set, dataset, to timely report sufficient information about its removal of the discrepant data to a local health officer and the local health officer may remove the discrepant data from the county’s data set.
dataset. The bill would also require the department, if it publishes provisional data on coccidioidomycosis cases, to publish an explanation of data changes likely to occur and of discrepancies between data reported by a local health officer and data reported by the department. The bill would require the department to publish the date range of a data set dataset and the date on which the data set
dataset was updated if the department publishes data on coccidioidomycosis cases. By imposing specific coccidioidomycosis reporting requirements on local health officers, the bill would create a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Digest Key

Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.Section 120161 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

120161.

(a)The department shall establish a deadline of March 31, 2019, and each March 31 thereafter, for a local health officer to report to the department all cases of coccidioidomycosis reported to the local health officer for the previous calendar year.

(b)A case of coccidioidomycosis that is not reported to the department by the deadline specified in subdivision (a) shall be included in the next year’s data collection and attributed to the year of diagnosis in future data reporting.

SECTION 1.

Section 120161 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

120161.

If the department receives a report of a case of coccidioidomycosis after the department’s reporting deadline for a specified year, the department shall include the case in its data collection for the next year and attribute it to the year of diagnosis in future data reporting.

SEC. 2.

Section 120162 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

120162.

By April 15 of each year, the department shall collect data on coccidioidomycosis cases from both of the following:

(b) Any other electronic data system used by a local health department, a coccidioidomycosis case report submitted to the department by a local health officer, or both.

SEC. 3.

Section 120163 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

120163.

(a) If the department collects data on coccidioidomycosis cases from a local health officer and removes discrepant data from its internal data set dataset for any reason, including, but not limited to, to delete duplicate cases reported by multiple counties, the department shall report in a timely manner sufficient information about its removal of the discrepant data to the local health officer and the local health officer may remove the discrepant data from the county’s data set.
dataset.

(b) If the department publishes provisional data on coccidioidomycosis cases, the department shall include in its publication an explanation for likely data changes between initial and final publication, and an explanation for discrepancies between data reported by a local health officer and data reported by the department.

(c) If the department publishes data on coccidioidomycosis cases, the department shall include in its publication the date range of the data set dataset published and the date on which the published data set was
updated.

SEC. 4.

If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.